Birthday Game Weekend!

This year, for my Birthday, I wanted to get a bunch of friends together and play Twilight Imperium. That... did not happen- between a new job and some weather instability, it just didn't make sense. So instead, we played MANY games instead! I have pictures of most of them, except for Mysterium (which we all won!) and Zombicide (which had the game winning fairly definitively).

Thanks to everyone for coming down, and NEXT year I'll get that TWIII game in!

First game of the weekend? Zombie State. Its not a perfect game, but we had a ton
of fun really getting into character and into the theme. It helps that we play it more
as a straight cooperative game- where we occasionally funnel zombies into
each other.

In North America the zombies quickly bisect the continet, leaving California
and the North East as the only safe zones.

I was playing as Africa. No sooner did I wall off the south did an Outbreak
occur in South Africa. With a heavy heart, I built two more barricades, leaving
only two safe (ish) regions.

South America was a mess for the majority of the game, with the government using
civilians to make natural barricades from 'dead zones'.

Asia and Europe both have a rough start- though Asia managed to funnel zombies west
and set up a decent defensive center in Australia.

On one crucial turn, with a random event actually enabling a 2+ tech roll,
Asia fails...

... followed by South America failing the exact same roll. This was ALMOST
enough to seal the fates of both continents due to the resources and actions expended
on failures.

Still, with broad teamwork (using foreign aid) almost all of Europe's zombies
find themselves in Pakistan. Yes, that IS a stack of 3's.

Luckily, all clumped together, they are an excellent target for a nuclear strike.

While the other continents (Europe and North America specifically) decided to
take a nuclear option, the Africans decided to cure the disease instead, bringing
South America back to life after many turns as a ravening horde of zombies.

It was down to the wire, and as we went to turn 14 we needed no new outbreaks in
Europe and we'd win... and huzzah! Europe (and the rest of us by proxy) managed
to stop the zombie virus from going airborne!

North America was beginning to clean itself out, South America ended the
game still in absolutely critical condition.

Asia, though, suffered the most. At the end of the day only the
safe haven of Australia remained. The rest of the continent reduced
to an empty, corpse filled wasteland. But the rest of us won!

Next was Libertalia! I managed to win this one.

One of my birthday gifts was the new Joking Hazards game. I had terrible luck
'reading the room' but it was a lot of fun.

Next we have a game of Magnates which started off nice and clean and...

...ended with Poland being Partitioned and no one winning at all.

I played a game of Onitama, and it started alright, before I was reduced to
just my Sensai and crushed.

A favor I returned in two games of two player Mystic Vale. Go for
the victory point cards Bob! Jeez.

Then we pulled out an old Catan variant that we enjoyed. It was a crazy game. I
committed the cardinal sin of doing too well at the beginning, only to be punished
hard by the dice and other two players.

After fighting to the death for the longest road, I was two points away from winning. Dad
was one.... and out of nowhere white reveals two victory point cards. Shocking comeback
and win for Bob!

Last we pulled out Bruges. It started fine, until Bob turn 1'd a Gentlewoman. He
averaged two actions for every one of ours, as evidenced by his massive neighborhood.

Still, I built a lot of synergy and only lost this game by nine points with only six cards
to his ten- enough to take second!